microsoft / microsoft/PowerToys

ZoomIt text extraction shortcut added in 0.99 silently breaks international keyboard usage

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#48,377 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Issue-Bug Needs-Triage Product-Keyboard Manager Product-ZoomIt
Dominant language
C
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Forks
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Description

### Microsoft PowerToys version

0.99.0

### Installation method

PowerToys auto-update

### Area(s) with issue?

ZoomIt

### Steps to reproduce

- Set an international keyboard as input method e.g. UKX
- Try to input a character with a circumflex diacritic via the standard keyboard sequence AltGr (or Ctrl + Alt) 6 > letter

### ✔️ Expected Behavior

- Input of standard circumflex accented character

### ❌ Actual Behavior

- ZoomIt text extraction feature launches greying out screen
- No circumflex accented character is entered
- No conflict is shown in the Powertoys dashboard "Shortcut conflicts" feature

### Upload Bug Report ZIP-file

_No response_

### Additional Information

The greyed out screen for the ZoomIt text extraction has no other interface elements, so it's initially hard to know what app is causing the issue.

The behaviour is very similar to snipping tool, my first instinct was to check settings there before debugging via "disable Powertoys apps one by one". (Luckily, for some reason, I chose to start at the bottom of the list so saved myself a chunk of time...)

The activation shortcut popup in ZoomIt settings does show a warning "Possible shortcut interference with Alt Gr" + tooltip explaining potential functionality removal from international keyboards.

My first expectation would be that a new feature shouldn't silently start using a shortcut that conflicts with standard input features.

Failing this, showing the conflict in the PowerToys dashboard Shortcut conflicts would help trace the issue.

Detailing the same warning info provided on the shortcut popup in release notes would also help.

### Other Software

_No response_

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reproducing the issue in ZoomIt with a UKX or other international keyboard, then inspect the ZoomIt text-extraction shortcut settings and the Shortcut conflicts dashboard. Done means the standard AltGr/Ctrl+Alt circumflex sequence works without launching text extraction, and any unavoidable conflict is clearly surfaced to users.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c
Domain
desktop, operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
52/100

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